The Evolution of Man
by
Zbigniew Lech
Evidence for evolution is based on fossil
remains, geological layer in which the remains were found, and
fossils of other species found around them. The fossil record
shows a steady development towards modern man. We can follow our
ancestry. Study of evolution by is complicated by fact that
various names are used for same group. Generally agreed that
first ancestor was Proconsul.
| Species | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Proconsul | Common ancestor to groups
that came later. Lived at edge of forest |
| Paranthropus | About 5 ft, 140 pounds. Not a tool user-had large teeth and was primarily a vegetarian. Walked upright. Did not evolve. Paranthropus died out. |
| Australopithecus | Meat eater, probably
started off as a scavenger but evolved into larger
specimens. Not clear if Australopithecus is an ancestor
to man or an offshoot. |
| Homo Erectus | Moved out of Africa to
Europe and Asia. Might have been driven by population
pressure. Homo Erectus used tools, could do some counting
and took tools from one location to another. There is
also evidence that bands joined together for hunts. |
| Neanderthal Man | Fossils are abundant but
they abruptly disappear. There is overlap with modern man
but no blending between the two at least in Europe. Lived
together in small family units. Lived primarily off of
small game like rabbits and waterfowl, but were also
cannibals. Were able to survive ice age. May have been
easier then than later because game was more
concentrated. Also joined together for hunt. |
| Cro-Magnon Man | Entered Europe from the Middle East. They were hunter gatherers and had better tools. They occupied caves and rock shelters. Would also build tents and partially subterranean shelters. Graves are fairly common. Paintings are also found. Paintings done either by outlining animal in black or by tracing the outline and then filling in with color and scrapping to obtain correct shading. They had only natural substances for paints and used branches or feathers for brushes. |
Africa is the cradle of human race.
Anthropologists have unearthed the oldest human skeletons in East
Africa in places such as Hadar, Olduvai, Laetoli. One of the best
preserved human remnants is a female skeleton found at Hadar in
Ethiopia. Anthropologists assembled about 40% of the young girl
that was given the nick name "Lucy". Lucy was dated
between 3.6 and 3 million years ago and belongs to the
Australopethicus category.
Evolution is defined as a change in the gene pool of a population over time. A gene is a hereditary unit that can be passed on unaltered for many generations. The gene pool is the set of all genes in a species or population. Populations evolve. In order to understand evolution, it is necessary to view populations as a collection of separate individuals, each having a different set of traits. Individual organisms do not evolve, they simply retain the same genes throughout their life.
The direct lineage from the ancestor of both man and the modern apes to modern man is not exactly known. Evidence is always increasing. The following account is based on the studies of many learned men. The word hominidae is used to describe the total member species of the human family that have lived since the last common ancestor of both man and the apes. A hominid is an individual species within that family. The field of science which studies the human fossil record is known as paleoanthropology. It is the intersection of the disciplines of paleontology (the study of ancient life forms) and anthropology (the study of humans). Each hominid name consists of a genus name (e.g. Australopithecus, Homo) which is always capitalized, and a species name (e.g. africanus, erectus) which is always in lower case. No one is sure of the exact time of this common ancestor to both ape and human, but it is believed to be about 5.5 million years ago. A fossil record near this time is Ramapithecus, which was believed to be an early hominid for many years, but is considered now an ancient ape that lived near a fork in our common lineage. Ramapithecus is now thought to be an ancestor of the modern apes. From a genome viewpoint, the difference between modern man and the modern apes is quite very small. It being about 3 percent. From a physical viewpoint, the greatest difference is in movement, locomotion. The human walks upright. It is generally thought that this came about when the ancient hominid adopted the edge of the forest and plain and adapted to a life under the trees as opposed to in them. Fossil evidence shows that this bipedal adaptation was completed quite early, perhaps as early as four million years ago, long before we looked like or thought like we do today. Facial feature changes toward the modern appearance came much later. The facial characteristics of modern man are about 100,000 years old. The faces of earlier hominid were much more apelike. Controversy exists over whether brain size alone shows intellectual ability, but our only measure of intellectual growth in the hominid record is brain size. The fossil evidence, except for one notable blip, shows a steady growth in brain size. This can be misleading due to the different sizes of the people. Early man was quite small and the males were much larger than the females. Modern man and the other apes are quite similar.
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